Wikileaks founder Assange: UK government confirms extradition to US
Created: 06/18/2022, 06:08
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange leaves Westminster Magistrates Court after a hearing on the US extradition request.
© Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire/dpa/archive image
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to the United States.
British Home Secretary Patel signed a corresponding regulation.
London/Munich — Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is to be extradited to the United States.
According to the national news agency
Press Association (PA Media)
, the British Home Office confirmed that Home Secretary Priti Patel had already signed a corresponding regulation.
Assange: Wikileaks founder to be extradited to USA – platform speaks of “black day”
Assange has 14 days to take action against the British government's decision.
The Australian faces life imprisonment in the United States for publishing secret documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the law, the Minister of the Interior must sign an extradition order "if there are no reasons that preclude (extradition) from it," the ministry said.
The British courts could not have identified such reasons.
The Internet disclosure platform Wikileaks spoke on Twitter of a "black day for press freedom and British democracy" and announced a contradiction.
In April, a British court formally approved the extradition of the Wikileaks founder to the United States after years of legal wrangling.
The final decision rested with the British Home Secretary.
In January 2021, a British court had forbidden Assange's extradition, citing a high risk of suicide.
However, the United States had appealed the verdict and won.
Assange: Wikileaks founder faces high prison sentence in the USA - up to 175 years
In the US, Assange is accused of espionage and the publication of hundreds of thousands of secret documents on the Wikileaks disclosure platform about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The papers, released from 2010, contained explosive information about US operations in these countries, including the killing of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners.
If convicted in the US, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.
The 50-year-old and his supporters have repeatedly criticized the procedures as politically motivated.
Assange has been incarcerated in Belmarsh high-security prison near London for three years.
(bb with AFP)